Walking stilt



Cl. SCHJILLINQ WALKING STILT Filed Sept. 5, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet l J/VI/ENTO/P MLL MM C: SCH/LUNG,

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jvz/c/vrde a 5 W U m N r P o 5 m C T M g M w Patented Oct. 1, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Claims This invention relates to means in the nature of stilts and hereinafter termed walkers, for permitting a person to walk about in an elevated position. A primary object of the invention is 5 to provide a mechanism that will permit the person to walk about in the elevated position with a sense of security and without undue effort in maintaining a balance whereby the person may carry on his work at that position over relative- 1y long periods of time without fatigue.

The invention may be employed in many instances, such as to enable the user to walk at an elevated position in cornfields to de-tassel corn stalks inhybrid seed corn growing, picking fruit,

painting buildings, and the like where the work may be at or above the users head. A further object is to make the invention in a form that is light weight and low in cost of manufacture.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a mechanism for the purpose indicated I that will automatically tend to balance the user so that his hands are left free to conduct his work as he may move about.

These and many other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those versed in the art in the following description of one particular form of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a structure embodymg the invention;

Fig. 2, a front elevation;

Fig. 3, a top plan view on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 4, a detail in partial section of a turnbuckle attachment on enlarged scale; and

Fig. 5, a detail in transverse section on an enlarged scale of the foot piece attachment.

Like characters of reference indicate like parts throughout the several views in the drawings.

I form a frame in the nature of an elongated Y to have a pair of arms In and II bend outwardly and upwardly in spaced apart relation from a lower shank I2. A tie block I3 is fixed between the arms Ill and II at a distance above their junction with the shank I2, and above the block I3, the arms are each bent inwardly to have the arms diverge outwardly one from the other slightly from parallelism. Preferably, the arms each taper from. this upper bend to a reduced thickness at their top ends.

A foot piece I4 is rockably mounted between the arms I0 and I I above the block I3 and slightly above the upper bends in the arms. In the form herein shown, the foot piece I4 is made of wood and has a bolt I5 passed transversely therethrough and through each of the arms l0 andII so that thefoot piece I4 is left free to rock in relation to the arms. A heel plate I6 is placed across the back end of the foot piece I4 and a strap Il, divided to carry a buckle I8 therein, has its ends secured to the sides and 5 near the rear end of the piece I I to be passed over the instep of the foot of the user to keep the heel back against the plate It. A toe strap I9 is provided across and over the forward part of the foot piece it for convenience although it 1 is not essential. As indicated, the foot piece I 4 in plan View, Fig, 3, may have its toe end shaped to define a right or left hand piece, a left hand one being indicated, but such shaping would be only to indicate buckle positions since 15 the remainder of the structure is symmetrical about the major vertical axis.

Each of the arms Ill and II carry respectively broad leather protectors 20 and 2| and having their ends arranged to telescope one over the 20 other in use. An engaging strap 22 is secured to and passes around the arms Iii and II and the protectors 2t and El to be adjustable in length through a buckle 23, shortening of the strap tending to spring the arms Ill and II to- 25 ward each other and also to reduce the effective internal diameter of the combined protectors 2B and 2 I.

A relatively narrow runner 24 is rockably attached to the lower end of the shank I2 so as 30 to be free to swing in a fore and aft direction.

In the form: herein shown, side plates 25 and 26 are bolted respectively to the inner and outer sides of the shank I2 to extend therebelow in fixed positions to straddle the runner 24 and receive 35 therethrough a bolt ii'l also passing through the runner. A rubber shoe 28 is placed on the under side of the runner 26. This shoe has a straight forward portion extending back from the front end to a line back of the shank I2, 40 from which line, the shoe turns upwardly to the rear end of the runner, Fig. 1.

The upper foot piece I l and the runner 24 are tied together so that when one rocks, the other will rock in the same direction. To ac- 45 complish this, fore and after cables or wires 29 and 30 respectively are secured to the runner 24 and carried upwardly and secured through turnbuckles 3| and 32 to the foot piece I i. In the form shown, the wire 29 is tied to a screw-eye 33 in- 50 serted in the top face of the runner 24 ahead of its pivot axis, and the upper end of the wire 29 is tied to the lower end of the turnbuckle 3|. The upper end of the turnbuckle 3| has a pin 34 carried by the foot piece I4 passed through the 55 eye of the upper bolt 35 to secure it to the foot piece [4. In the same manner, the rear wire 30 is tied to a screw-eye 36 fixed on the runner at a distance behind its pivot axis equal to the distance therefrom of the eye 33, and the turnbuckle 32 is connected to the foot piece [4 by the pin 31. It is to be particularly noted, Fig. 1, that the pins 34 and 31, while being equally spaced from the pivot bolt l5, have that spacing equal to just half of the spacing of the screw-eyes 33 and 36 from the runner pivot axis.

In order to provide adjustments to suit the individual walker a plurality of holes as 34 and 31 may be provided for the selective attachment of the rods 29 and 30.

I find that for the average person, the following dimensions give the best operation of the walkers. The overall length of the arms plus shank and runner is substantially 51 inches. The foot piece M is mounted to have its top side substantially 25 inches above the under side of the shoe 28. The pins 34 and 3'! are each 1 inches from the center of the bolt I5, and the screw-eyes 33 and 36 are each centered 3 inches from the axis of the pivot bolt 21. The straight portion of the shoe 28 extends 4% inches forwardly of the bolt 2'! axis and 2 inches rearwardly thereof. The foot piece [4 is substantially 3% inches wide by 10% inches long. While the arms l and II could be made of metal, they are preferably made of wood and bent to shape, the shank being either one piece or in two pieces by bringing together the lower ends of the arms. The turnbuckles 3| and 32 are adjusted to tighten the wires 29 and 30 to bring the foot piece l4 and the straight portion of the shoe 23 into parallelism and to eliminate any lost motion therebetween.

It is understood, of course, that one walker is used on each leg of the user. The users foot is placed on the foot piece 14 in each instance and the strap ll tightened over the instep. The lengths of the arms l0 and II are sufiicient to bring the leather protectors 20 and 2| about the users legs just above his knees and the strap 22 is tightened through the buckle 23. Before the user has accustomed himself to the walkers, he will want to bring this strap up snugly, but after a short period of use, he will learn that this strap may be left somewhat loose and without any binding effect about the leg. The protectors 20 and 2! serve to prevent bruising or chafing.

Now when the user stands erect on the walkers attached as above indicated, he will be able to walk about or stand with ease. The tendency of the user is to lean forward. This produces a tendency to rock the foot pieces l4 downwardly at their front ends which in turn tends to pull up on the rear wires 38 to apply increasing pressure at the forward ends of the shoes 28, and thereby tend to rock back or maintain the person in a central balanced position. As the person walks, the runners 24 are lifted and swing forwardly and upwardly in an arc. The rounded rear ends of the runner permit this swinging without interference with the ground, and also permit the shoes to come down and rock over easily to the standing positions.

While I have herein shown and described my invention in the best form as now known to me, it is obvious that structural variations may be employed without departing from the spirit of the invention, such, for example, as employing a rigid member instead of the flexible wires 29 and 30, and I, therefore, do not desire to be limited to that precise form beyond the limitations as may be imposed by the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a walker, a supporting frame, a foot piece rockably carried by the frame above its lower end, a runner rockably carried at the lower end of the frame, and means interconnecting the foot piece and said runner, whereby, upon rocking, both the foot piece and the runner will rock in the same direction, said means comprising a member interconnecting the forward portions of both the foot piece and the runner, and a second member interconnecting the rear portions of both the foot piece and the runner, the connections of said members with said foot piece being spaced respectively from the rocking axis of the foot piece a less distance than that of the spacing of the lower runner connecting ends thereof from the runner rocking axis, said distance being on the order of one to two.

2. In a walker, a frame comprising a pair of spaced apart arms brought together at their lower ends to form a shank, a foot piece rockably mounted between the arms above said shank, a foot rockably mounted on the lower end of the shank, a tie member interconnecting between the forward portions of both the foot piece and the foot, and a second tie member interconnecting between the rear portions of the foot piece and the foot, and leg connecting means carried by the upper portions of said arms, both of said tie members connecting with said foot piece at points equally spaced from the rocking axis of the foot piece, and connecting with said foot at points equally spaced from the foot rocking axis, the said distances at the foot piece being less than the said distances at said foot, said tie members comprising cables and means for adjusting the lengths thereof.

3. In a walking stilt, a supporting frame, a foot piece rockably carried by the frame spaced above its lower end and also spaced below its top end a sufiicient distance to have that distance exceed the length of the wearers leg from the knee to the sole of the foot, a runner rockably carried at the lower end of the frame, said foot piece and said runner being pivoted to have forward ends extending respectively beyond the pivot connections with the frame, and a tie member interconnecting the rear end portions of said foot piece and said runner behind their frame pivot connections, the distance of the tie member connections on the runner from the runner pivot axis greatly exceeding that of the tie member connection on the foot piece from its pivot axis, whereby rocking of the foot piece produces a multiplied rocking of the runner in the same direction as that of the foot piece, the length of the ground contacting part of said runner behind its pivot axis being less than the distance from that axis to the rear tie member connection with the runner.

4. In a walker, a supporting frame, a foot piece rockably carried by the frame above its lower end, a runner rockably carried at the lower end of the frame, and means interconnecting the foot piece and said runner, whereby, upon rocking, both the foot piece and the runner will rock in the same direction, said means comprising a member interconnecting the forward portions of both the foot piece and the runner, and a second member interconnecting the rear portions of both the foot piece and the runner, the connections of said members with said foot piece being spaced respectively from the rocking axis of the foot piece a less distance than that of the spacing of the lower runner connecting ends thereof from the runner rocking axis, said distance being on the order of one to two, for a substantially two foot effective distance of the foot piece above the underside of said runner.

5. In a walker, a supporting frame, a foot piece rockably carried by the frame above its lower end, a runner rockably carried at the lower end of the frame, and means interconnecting the foot piece and said runner, whereby, upon rocking, both the foot piece and the runner will rock in the same direction, said means comprising a member interconnecting the forward portions of both the foot piece and the runner, and a second member interconnecting the rear portions of both the foot piece and the runner, the connections of said members with said foot piece being spaced respectively from the rocking axis of the foot piece a less distance than that of the spacing of the lower runner connecting ends thereof from the runner rocking axis, said distance being on the order of one to two for a substantially two foot efiective distance of the foot piece above the underside of said runner, and attaching means between the frame and the leg of the user above his knee.

WILLIAM C. SCI-H'LLING. 

